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IELTS TEM8 GRE
外刊例句
- Saudi Arabia had been lobbying Mr Biden to make sure that any deal America struck with Iran was not too lenient.
沙特阿拉伯一直在游说拜登，以确保美国与伊朗达成的任何协议都不会过于宽松。
——《经济学人》 - At the same time, Mr. Biden and his team have been under intense fire from Republicans, who accuse the administration of being too lenient at the border.
与此同时，拜登和他的团队遭到共和党人的猛烈抨击，他们指责拜登政府在边境问题上过于宽松。
——《纽约时报》
基本释义
[adjective] (of punishment or a person in authority) permissive, merciful, or tolerant
[形容词] （指惩罚或当权者）纵容的、仁慈的或宽容的
深入解读
Lenient 是一个与熟词 strict 含义相反的单词。该词源自拉丁语 lenis （温和的、温柔的、平静的），17世纪中期经法语 lenient 进入英语，原用来表示“放松的、舒缓的”，不过这个含义现已不再流行。
转而到了1787年后， lenient 开始发展出现在的主要含义指“宽容的、宽大的、宽松的、仁慈的”，多指法官、统治者、当权者或其惩罚、处理、评分、态度等在纪律或严谨上放松，不如预期的那样严格、严厉或有力，比如：
- 该法官对这个恶魔过于宽容。
The judge was far too lenient with the fiend. - 这位出色的老师批改作业打分松，对犯规学生处理也宽。
The eminent teacher was lenient both in his marking of homework and also in his treatment of offenders.
名著用例
I would ask you, dearest, to be very generous with him always, and very lenient on his faults when he is not by.
我想求你，我最亲爱的，对他永远要十分地宽厚慷慨，在他不在场的时候，对他的缺点也要非常地宽容。
出自英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯（Charles Dickens）创作的长篇历史小说《双城记》（A Tale of Two Cities）。
同近义词
- merciful: showing or exercising mercy
- clement: (of a person or a person's actions) merciful
- indulgent: having or indicating a tendency to be overly generous to or lenient with someone
